Cap for bottles.



PATENTED AUG. 1, 1905.

F. REUHT. GAP FOR BOTTLES.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 2, 1904,

j "zsimiiaiim Inven tor,

Fredemck Recht,

Witnesses:

UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICE.

COMPANY, OF NEW YORK,

FREDERICK REOHT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y. ASSIGNOR TO REX CAP AND CORK N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

CAP FOR BOTTLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 1, 1905.

Application filed geptember 2, 1904. Serial No. 223,087.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK REOHT, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of the borough of Brooklyn, in the city of New York, county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gaps for Bottles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is an improvement in the form of a flanged bottle-sealing cap adapted to fit over the mouth of a bottle with an outwardly-projecting lip and constructed to lock against a shoulder or under side of the lip by means of a bead with an inwardly-facing groove around the lower margin of the flange of the bottle-cap. A wire is located within the inwardly-facing groove of the cap, and a function of the wire is to effect the release of the cap from the bottle on the Withdrawal of the wire.

A bottle-cap as above defined has heretofore been patented to me in United States Letters Patent No. 6%,627, dated April 3, 1900.

One feature of my invention herein set forth consists in the substitution for a continuous and imperforate bead of a serrated or noncontinuous bead, and I thereby attain the object, which I believe to be new in beads with inwardly-facing grooves containing wires, of provision for the more ready removal of the wire.

Another feature of my invention consists in the formation of the bead with a sharp fold, whereby a groove is formed which is sufficiently V-shaped to keep the wire from seating in the bottom of the groove. An important object attained by this construction is that allowance is thereby made for more variation in the size of the bottles, since a change in the sharpness of the fold of the bead will permit the wire to fit more or less deeply in the groove and to adapt the closure to bottles with respectivelylarger or smaller lips. The serration of the bead also increases the range of variation in size of bottle-lips to which the cap can be applied.

In the accompanying sheet of drawings, which I hereby make a part of this application, Figure 1 shows, to an enlarged scale, the neck and mouth of a bottle with my improved cap applied thereto- Fig. 2 is a section through the cap on the diametral line H II of Fig. 3 is a view of the cap from un- Fig. t shows the cap on the bot- Fig. 3. derneath.

tle. but with the wire partly removed. Fig. 5 is a section through the cap and bottlemouth on a diametral line, showing the cap attached to a bottle-mouth of exceptionally large diameter. Fig. 6 is a similar sectional view showing the cap attached to a bottlemouth of exceptionally small diameter.

My improved form of cap A is illustrated in connection with the mouth of a bottle B. The bottle-mouth is formed with an outwardly-projecting lip a, which surrounds the bottle-mouth, thereby forming under the lip an annular groove 1), and an annular shoulder 0, which is the upper side of the groove and the lower side of the lip. The sealing-cap is formed of sheet metal, with a depending flange (Z of slightly larger inside diameter than the average diameter of the lips of bottles which it is designed to seal. A suitable compressible sealing medium-as, for example, a disk of cork O-is placed in the cap and lies between the top of the cap and the bottle-mouth. A bead e with-an inwardly-facing annular groove is formed around the lower margin of the depending flange.

A wire D is placed in the groove. One end of the wire projects from the groove and is formed into a loop f of suflicient size for the insertion of a finger, so that the wire may be conveniently seized by the loop when the cap is on a bottle and drawn out from the groove to effect the opening of the groove and release of the cap from the bottle. The bead is sharply folded, so that the groove is V-shaped, and the wire, which has adiameter somewhat larger than the curvature at the bottom of the V-groove, will seat against the inclined sides instead of against the bottom of the groove. The bead is serrated or notched at frequent intervals at g on its lower side, as shown.

' The cap when placed on the bottle-mouth is brought into sealing contact by forcing one of the parts relatively to the other in the direction of the bottle-axis m m, and thereby tightly compressing in sealing contact that portion of the cork sealing-disk which overlies the rim of the bottle-mouth. The bead is then forced inwardly until the wire is brought into locking engagement, (in the case of bottles with the larger or medium diameters of lips to which the cap is applicable,) with the shoulder under the bottle-lip, so that the bead is in locking engagement with the shoulder through the interposed Wire, as illustrated in Fig. 5, or (in the case of bottles with the smallest diameters of lips to which the cap is applicable) until the lower partof the bead is brought into direct locking contact with the shoulder under the bottle-lip, as illustrated in Fig. 6, instead of looking to the shoulder through the wire, as illustrated in Fig. 5. This closure of the cap on the bottle is preferably effected by the method and apparatus set forth in an application for Letters Patent of the United States, entitled Method of and apparatus for applying caps to bottles,? executed by me concurrently with this application and filed September 2, 1904, Serial No. 223,088. This method and apparatus, in brief, consist in applying the closing pressure against the upper shoulder of the bead by means of an annular chuck, which rests substantially normally against the upper shoulder it, so that the action of this pressure is to first draw the cap down over the bottlemouth until the sealing-disk has been sufficiently compressed and brought into sealing engagement with the bottle-mouth, and then a continuation of this pressure overcomes the rigidity of the bead and substantially rolls it downwardly and inwardly toward the bottleneck until it is brought into locking engagement with the shoulder of the bottle-lip, as above defined. In being thus rolled into contact the bead is turned about approximately its line of juncture with the depending flange.

The caps are formed by means of dies, and the dimensions of different caps formed in the same die differ to a negligable degree; but this is not as true of bottles which are molded. It is desirable to be able to properly aflix caps of the same size to the mouths of bottles which have a considerable difference in diameters over their lips, and an important object of mypresent invention is to so construct the capthat it can be applied to bottle-mouths of a diversity of sizes and by the method and apparatus above indicated. For this purpose I make the bead discontinuous, so that it will closein more readily, since the bead then has only to be bent about its line of juncture with the depending flange of the cap, and only the resistance of the iron to bending has to be overcome, whereas if the bead were continu ous the metal of the bead would have to be upset in the direction of the length of the bead in shrinking it to a smaller circle. Likewise the discontinuous character renders it more easy to open up in releasing the cap from the bottle, since the metal has only to-be bent and the bead as a whole does not have to be stretched. This is particularly important, as it must be effected by pulling the loop of the wire with the finger and the force which can be exerted is limited. By making the bead discontinuous at frequent intervals or serrating, as shown, it is converted into a series of prongs and the finger-pulling on the loop at the end of the wire only has to exert sufficient force to unbend the prongs oneat a time.

The sharp folding of the head or prongs, so"

that the wire will not be seated at the extreme point of the angle, also contributes to the same advantages, for, in closing, the wire will be driven more or less into the angle to allow for variation in size or irregularity in contour of the bottle-mouths, and in withdrawing the wire, since the prongs unbend principally at the point where they are sharply folded and the wire is kept away from this point by the sharp fold, it will' act with more leverage on the prongs.

I find that sheet-tin with a thickness of twelve-thousandths of an inch is well suited for the construction of caps with beads possessing the requisite rigidity for the practice of the method of application to bottles above indicated and to properly engage the bottle and at the same time to be sufficiently pliable for release in the manner indicated. I also find that caps formed of such sheet-tin with an inside diameter of 1.065-inches can be properly attached to bottles with a diameter over their lips as large as 1.075 inches and as small as 1.010 inches.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. A metallic flanged bottle-sealing cap-,having a serrated bead with an inwardly-facing groove around the margin of the cap, and a wire located in the groove, substantially as described.

2. A metallic flanged bottle-sealing cap,having a sharply-folded bead with an inwardlyfacing V-groove around the lower margin of the flange, and a wire having a d iameter greater than the diameter of the curvature of the bottom of the V-groove located in the groove, substantially as described.

3. A metallic flanged bottle-sealing cap, having a sharply-folded and serrated bead with an inwardly-facing V-groove formed around the lower margin of the flange, and a wire having a diameter greater than the diameter of the curvature of the bottom of the V-groove located in the V-groove, substantially as described.

4. The combination of a bottle having on its head an. annular outwardly-projecting shoulder, a metallic flanged sealing-cap having aserrated bead forminganinwardly-facing groove along the lower margin and looking to the shoulder formed on the bottle, a sealing-disk under compression contained within the cap, and a wire located in the groove, substantially as described.

5. The combination of a bottle having on its head an annular outwardly-projecting shoulder, a metallic flanged sealing-cap having a sharply-folded bead forming an inwardlyfacing V-groove along the lower margin of the flange and looking to, the shoulder formed on the bottle, a sealing-disk under compression contained Within the cap, and a Wire having a diameter greater than the diameter of the curvature of the bottom of the V-groove located in the V-groove, substantially as described.

6. The combination of a bottle having on its head an annular outwardly-projecting shoulder, a metallic flanged sealing-cap having a sharply-folded and serrated bead forming an inwardly-facing V-groove along the lower margin of the flange and locking to the shoulder formed on the bottle, a sealing-disk under compression contained within the cap, and a Wire having a diameter greater than the diameter of the curvature of the bottom of the V-groove located in the V-gooove, substantially as described.

Signed by me at New York city, borough of Manhattan, New York, on the 26th day of August, 1904:.

FREDERICK RECHT. Witnesses:

SAMUEL W. BALCH, OSCAR H. GooDELL. 

